Two year old Luca was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia in May 2011. He underwent almost five months of intense chemotherapy treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital which was ultimately unsuccessful, leaving a possible bone marrow transplant as his only hope. If a matching bone marrow donor couldn't be found there would be an 80 per cent chance Luca would die. Luca's mum is from America and his dad is from Turkey, so the chances of finding bone marrow which matched were very slim.”Amazingly, an international search for bone marrow found an umbilical cord in Spain with cells which partially matched Luca’s. He underwent a further 10 days of intense chemotherapy before the cells were transplanted. Thankfully the transplant was successful and Luca is now in remission.

Right now, there are only matching donors for half the people in desperate need of a lifesaving transplant. Men aged 18-30 are more likely to be chosen to donate, but they currently account for just 12% of donors on the register. That’s why we want more people to come forward and become donors.

Registering is simple. Go online to receive a swab testing kit in the post. You just need to use the swabs enclosed to gather cells from inside your cheek and then send the kit back. The kit is free, but donations are accepted. It takes 10 days to get the kit and then about three weeks for it to be received and the testing to be done. Your details will be entered into the National registry so you will have the option in the future to save someone's life.